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Easy Chana chaat

3:00 PM is panic time at my place. My son comes home by 4. Usually I give him rice and veggies leftover from our lunch. But there are times when I would have managed an easy lunch somehow and then there won’t be anything left for him to eat. Even though I know that he comes by 4, I choose only 3 PM to start panicking. I am cool as cucumber until then.

On one of those days, I made this quick chana chaat using canned beans. If you can plan ahead you can always soak and cook chana. The chutneys takes only a few minutes to make or you can always use ready made ones. I have used the recipe from Vaishali’s space. Ideally you use only sweet chutney for this, but I added a teeny tiny bit of green chutney too. My son loves the sweet chutney a lot. I make paani puri with aloo filling with ready made puris too, but for today’s post, it is the chana chaat.

Chaat in general is not exactly healthy, but this particular one is definitely healthy. There is no deep frying involved, its just cooked chana with chutneys, spices and a bit of yogurt. I added a spoon of ready made sev for a bit of crunch, but its not enough to make the healthy factor go away.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:For the green chutney:

1 cup coriander leaves

1/2 cup mint leaves

1 green chili (or per taste)

juice of a lemon

salt as needed

Grind everything together to a fine paste. Some people add ginger and garlic as well when grinding. You will need only a teaspoon or so of this chutney, so you can skip this if you want.

For the sweet chutney:

1/2 cup of tamarind pulp

1/2 cup jaggery

a pinch each chili powder, garam masala and hing

salt as needed

Mix 1 tablespoon tamarind paste with half cup of water to get 1/2 cup of pulp. Or soak a small gooseberry sized tamarind ball in 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes and then extract the pulp and discard the fibrous bits. Bring the pulp to a boil with jaggery (or sugar). Add salt and the powders. Taste test and adjust if needed. Let it cook until it thickens a bit. Take off the heat and once its cooled down, use it in the chaat.

For the chaat:

1 can garbonzo beans, drained

1/2 small onion, chopped finely

1/2 small tomato, chopped finely

1/2 small potato, boiled

handful of chopped coriander leaves

1 teaspoon chaat masala, ready made

lemon juice and salt as needed

a tablespoon of sweet chutney

a teaspoon of green chutney

a teaspoon of sev, optional

Method:

In a bowl, add the drained and washed beans, onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves, potatoes, chili powder, chaat masala. Mix it in carefully and add lemon juice and salt to taste. You can add more or less chaat masala according to your preference. Add some sweet chutney and green chutney. Serve with some sev on top.

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10 thoughts on “Easy Chana chaat”

You start panicking at the last hour so you can give him fresh food … no need to panic !
And this is a excellent chat , a healthy one ! And who says chats are unhealthy ? Most of them have the best of ingredients like mint ,coriander , lemon , tamarind , jaggery.. a bit of healthy channa , boiled potatoes .. list is endless . Never say chats are unhealthy , ehe he ..

Ah, I love these last minute dishes that turn out so excellent!..and I agree with Vaishali, chaats especially those that don’t involve all deep fried dishes, are most certainly healthy!.While my daughter loves chaat, I find storing the chutneys little cumbersome as they don’t stay good for more than a day…so its a tough task…I must probably try freezing..

Some moms don’t change. Now that I am home I have no clue what to give kiddo at 4 pm. Should try these chats like you. They are healthy a bit too healthy for my lo she may refuse to eat it as she is not used to me feeding her at these times.